WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama did not mention race even as he addressed it Friday, March 23, instead letting his person and his words say it all: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

Weighing in for the first time on the death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager shot and killed a month ago in Florida by a neighborhood watchman, Obama in powerfully personal terms deplored the “tragedy” and, as a parent, expressed sympathy for the boy’s mother and father.

“I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids,” Obama said. “Every parent in America,” he added, “should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together – federal, state and local – to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened.”

While speaking from his perspective as the father of two girls, one a teenager, Obama notably made no reference to the racial context that has made the killing of Trayvon and the gunman’s claim of self-defense a rallying point for blacks. Since Obama first began campaigning to be “president of all the people,” as his advisers would put it when pressed on racial issues, he has been generally reluctant to talk about race.

Until Friday, Obama had refrained from commenting on the death of Martin, 17, a high school student who was killed on the night of Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., near Orlando. George Zimmerman, 28, the neighborhood watch volunteer, said he fired at Martin in self-defense, although there is no apparent evidence that the teenager, who held only a bag of Skittles candy and iced tea, was doing anything wrong.

But when a reporter asked about the case at a White House event introducing Jim Yong Kim as his choice to be president of the World Bank, Obama, who typically leaves such events ignoring the shouted questions of reporters, seemed prepared.

“It was inevitable given the high-profile nature of this story that he would be asked about it,” his press secretary, Jay Carney, said. He added that Obama “had thought about it and was prepared to answer that question when he got it.”

In his remarks, Obama endorsed the Justice Department investigation as well as efforts by local and state agencies in Florida to examine the circumstances of the shooting. Martin’s parents “are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves, and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” Obama said.

The president indicated his caution in not reacting earlier was due to the hazards of addressing an issue under inquiry.

“I’m the head of the executive branch and the attorney general reports to me, so I’ve got to be careful about my statements to make sure that we’re not impairing any investigation that’s taking place right now,” he said.

Obama’s comments appeared to prompt several of the Republicans campaigning to run against him to weigh in against the shooting for the first time. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum said that based on what they knew, Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law should not apply in Zimmerman’s case.

Santorum, campaigning at a shooting range in Louisiana, which holds a presidential primary Saturday, called the decision of local officials not to immediately prosecute Zimmerman “another chilling example of horrible decisions made by people in this process.”

Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, told reporters in Louisiana that the shooting was “a terrible tragedy, unnecessary, uncalled for and inexplicable at this point.”

In Miami, an attorney for shooter George Zimmerman said his client is not a racist and had sustained injuries such as a possible broken nose and a deep gash on the back of his head. Zimmerman, he said, mentors black children by taking them to a mall and science center. “I don’t believe George Zimmerman is a racist, or that this was motivated by a dislike for African-Americans,” Craig Sonner said on CNN.

Sonner said he and Zimmerman have not listened to 911 tapes or discussed details of what happened the night Trayvon was killed. He believes Zimmerman is still in the area, although he told an Orlando TV station that he is “fearful for his life.”

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